


A Place In The World

by xspike4evax



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-07
Updated: 2016-08-07
Packaged: 2018-08-07 06:15:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7703680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xspike4evax/pseuds/xspike4evax
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Faith and Willow finally understand each other</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Place In The World

**Author's Note:**

> Prompts: Candles & dirty from bad_swa over on LJ

The lights were blazing in the Summers house when Willow arrived back in Sunnydale with Faith in tow. Her trip to L.A. had been a success, Angel was back and she had an experienced Slayer to help in the fight against The First Evil. It was nice when things worked out. 

Xander was the first person they ran into when they came through the front door. He frowned at seeing Faith standing at Willow’s shoulder, a look of indecision on his face. Willow didn’t exactly blame him; it was uncomfortable enough coming face to face with someone you’d been intimate with years later, without having the added memory of that person nearly killing you. 

“Good to have you back, Wills.” Xander closed in on her and gave her a hug. He sniffed at her hair “Have you been smoking?” 

A flush crept into Willow’s cheeks. “N... no, it’s candles, I did a spell. Its smoke from the candles you smell.” 

Xander accepted the explanation with a smile. “You got Angel all souled up then?” 

“Yes. Everything’s back to normal.” 

“Good.” He stared at Faith for a moment. “I’ll tell Buffy you’re here.” 

Faith watched him disappear into the kitchen. Head tilting slight she raised an eyebrow at Willow. “Lying to your boy?”

“He doesn't know you smoke and well, he’ll have a hard enough time dealing with the fact your back without him knowing that.... "

“We got down and dirty in the car on the way back?”

Willow flushed again. “Yeah, that.”

Faith rolled her shoulders, a smiling playing around her lips. “He knows what a wild ride you can have with a slayer.” 

“I really don’t think Xander needs to remember that, it won’t help him accept you being here.”

“You might have a point,” Faith conceded. “What with me nearly killing him and all that.” 

“Yeah,” Willow chuckled lightly. “Xander can be pretty unreasonable and tends to hold a grudge about things like that.”

Faith gave her a long, searching look. “You clearly aren’t holding a grudge.” 

“I understand now,” Willow said softly. “I know what Xander doesn’t know and I hope he never knows. I know how easy it is to fall off the edge. I’ve been there. I tried to destroy the world. I hurt the people I love and care about. I’ve killed too, Faith. I flayed Warren alive. I know what it’s like to find yourself locked in darkness with no way out.” She touched Faith’s hair lightly, the long dark strands floating through her fingers. It was thick hair, it had filled her hands when she was grasping it in the car to stop herself falling off the edge of the world. It was a wild ride with a Slayer.

A small, uncertain smile crossed Willow’s lips. “They gave me another chance when I hadn’t even earned it. I didn’t accept my punishment the way you did. You deserve another chance, Faith. Besides, I like you. I guess I didn’t always like you, for various reasons, but I always admired you. You were everything I wish I could have been in high school, confident, beautiful, strong, independent. My high school experience would have been very different if I could have been half of those things.” She shrugged, lips pursing. “It seemed important back then.”

“Lot’s of things seemed important back then,” Faith replied, a world of wisdom and regret clouding her eyes. “My life hasn’t turned out the way it should have either. But hey, you’re all bad ass wicca now, not exactly the Willow I remember.” 

Willow groaned and made a face. “I’ve been a bit too bad ass.”

“Guess we both have.”

“It’s kinda nice, you know, having someone who can understand.”

“Yeah.” Faith snorted. “Makes a change.” 

Willow smiled, shyly slipping her fingers through Faith’s. “Things will never be the way they were. Things will never be the way they should have been. But right now, I kinda feel five by five.”


End file.
